Sand Ninja, Rock Ninja Allied Forces

The movements of the Five Great Shinobi Villages became a hurricane that swept across the entire shinobi world.

For a time, boundless terror shrouded the shinobi world. The numb, weary populace had only just managed to live ordinary lives for two years, and now they were once again forced to exist beneath the dark clouds of war.

Land of Rain, border region!

Nearly ten thousand shinobi gathered here.

Gulp!

The two-thousand-strong Sunagakure army could not help swallowing as they looked at the Iwagakure forces across from them, which numbered nearly three times their own.

Even knowing that these people would be their allies for some time to come, the disparity in numbers still made their hearts pound.

"There really are a lot of them. When will Sunagakure ever reach this scale?"

Whenever Rasa saw other shinobi villages effortlessly field thousands of shinobi while Sunagakure could only scrape together a force that was merely a fraction of the enemy's, his dissatisfaction with the daimyo grew stronger.

"Damn fool of a daimyo. What exactly does he gain by cutting Sunagakure's shinobi numbers and combat strength? He would rather fatten up enemy shinobi from Konoha than hand resources over to Sunagakure. Otherwise, how could Sunagakure have fallen to this state?"

Rasa buried his resentment toward the daimyo deep within his heart, then naturally greeted Ōnoki, who was floating in the sky.

"Lord Tsuchikage, it has been a long time."

"So it's you, Rasa! I remember the last time we met, you were still a little brat following behind Kui Dou. I didn't expect you to grow up so quickly! So, have you found any leads on that little brat Kui Dou?"

Ōnoki lowered himself and, without the slightest courtesy, jabbed straight at Rasa's sore spot.

Even with Rasa's deep composure, a flicker of